Heroin(e)

Chapter Two

"Esther! Get in here, you're gonna be late!"

I pushed my way through the crowd of girls and hurried to the desk. Celine was writing something down at lightning speed and looked up at me as I walked in. "Hurry back now, Loulou," she called after me, her voice getting fainter with each footstep. "You're third in line!"

Third in line. Fuck. I shouldn't have stayed up moping around like I did. 

I threw open the door to the locker room where three other girls already were. They spun away from the mirrors to see me, red faced and out of breath. "Woah," Betty said staring at me. I dropped my bag on a bench and zipped it open. The contents had been shaken up and it was a puzzle trying to find anything. "Sleep in or something?"

"No," I sighed. "The exact opposite, actually."

Betty didn't respond and I assumed she went back to doing her makeup. I rifled through my bag and pulled out my dress for tonight. It was tiny, of course, and red like blood. My heels had sunk to the bottom of the bag and I pulled them out. A tiny pair of women's underwear were hooked on the six inch heel and they fell to the nasty locker room floor. I picked them up. 

The few mirrors we had back here were crowded by the other girls so I got changed first. Swearing from the cold I slipped the dress and underwear on, leaving the heels last. Three years of working here and I still hated wearing them. The likes of Betty could wear them all night no problem and I still looked like a baby giraffe. The other girls learned real quick not to give me a hard time about it after I lashed out. I say lashed out, I mean stood up for myself. 

Betty left the mirror, giving her hair one last fluff. I grabbed a makeup palette and brushes and stole one of the hair dryers the locker room kept before anyone else could. Staking my claim in one of the chairs, I set to work. 

"You see the customers yet?" Jeanie asked as she curled her eyelashes, her red hair to match. I wasn't sure who she was talking to so I let Barbara answer first.

"A few," she said, pulling a curler out of her brown hair. I could smell their perfume and hoped to God I still had some in my bag. "It's never this busy when we open. It's always around midnight and all the pissed men come in that the money rolls in."

"You sure came in a hurry," Jeanie said eyeing me. "What gives?"

I didn't want to talk about it. "Let the time get away from me, I guess..."

"Celine almost crossed your name off the list, you know," she continued. "Almost let that new girl go on by herself."

I carelessly dried my hair with the dryer, blocking out the sound of their talking. It was such an old thing I worried someday it might short circuit and catch on fire or something. I hardly ever used it except in emergencies. When I thought the other girls weren't looking I aimed the dryer at my bare legs hoping to warm myself up. 

Shutting it off, I unplugged it and set it far away from me. The girls went to chattering again as I took up my makeup. 

"One more show and I'll have enough to go on holiday with," Jeanie said. 

"Where are you going?"

"Italy perhaps....maybe Greece."

"Should take me with you," Barbara said. "I could use a holiday."

I painted over my face with the brush, covering up any signs. The other girls here had no idea but I wondered if they suspected something. Do I blame them? Of course not, I looked horrible on a good day. I caught sight of my wild brown hair and dark brown eyes and froze up for a moment, almost dropping my brush.